There are many medical imaging systems used to acquire medical images suitable for diagnosing disease or injury. These include X-ray, CT scanner, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, and nuclear medicine systems. These medical imaging systems are capable of acquiring large amounts of image data during a patient scan. The medical imaging devices are generally networked with a central image management system, such as Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
In most cases, the image data is acquired as a series of contiguous two-dimensional (2D) slice images for diagnostic interpretation. For example, 100 to 1000 2D images may be acquired and viewed one at a time by scrolling through all the 2D images by the physician to diagnose the disease or injury. As a result, the physician is faced with the formidable task of viewing all the acquired 2D images to locate the region of interest where the disease or injury has occurred and then to select the diagnostically most useful images. As the image data sets get larger, this method of scrolling through the 2D images using a computer mouse by the physician and viewing each image becomes very time consuming and monotonous.
What is needed therefore is a system and method to improve diagnostic process and workflow through advanced visualization and user-interface technologies. What is also needed is a system and method of conducting diagnostic interpretation of the image data in a virtual-reality environment. What is also needed is a system and method of interacting with a patient's anatomy to conduct diagnostic interpretation of the image data by using tactile feedback on a variety of anatomical structures. What is also needed is a system and method of enabling a physician to contact and to manipulate the images for diagnosing anomalies in the virtual-reality environment. What is also needed is a graphical user interface (GUI) to permit an operator to use his/her hands to interactively manipulate virtual objects. These improvements would give physicians an ability to quickly navigate through a large image data set and would provide more efficient workflow. It should be understood, of course, that embodiments of the invention may also be used to meet other needs in addition to and/or instead of those set forth above.